Category Archives: Estate Planning

Estate & Succession Planning Survey – We Need Your Help!

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Dr. Justin Benavidez and I are working on a cool project sponsored by Texas Corn Producers.  We are conducting an anonymous survey to look at the current estate and business planning situation for Texas farmers, ranchers, and rural landowners.  We will use the information gathered to plan programming and resources going forward.   For this to be successful, we need your help!  Please take a couple of minutes and complete our online survey by clicking here.   If you’d prefer a paper copy, we are glad to send you one along… Read More →

December 17, 2021 Weekly Round Up

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Here we are with our final Weekly Round Up of 2021!   It has been quite the year. We will have our annual nationwide and Texas-specific year-in-review blog posts coming up over the next couple of weeks, and we recently released an Ag Law in the Field Podcast episode recapping the year from an ag law perspective here. Here are some recent news stories that may be of interest. *EPA considering modifications to dicamba approval, but offers no timeline.  A senior regulatory specialist with EPA stated that “the agency… Read More →

Texas Corn Producers Successful Succession Resources Available!

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Earlier this year, Texas Corn Producers asked me to work with them on a really important project.  Successful Succession is focused on providing information and resources for farm and ranch families to plan for the future.  We worked together to create a resource guide and a three-hour video series discussing issues related to estate and succession planning for farm and ranch families.  Thanks to grant funding from the Southern Extension Risk Management Education Center, these resources are available for free on the Texas Corn Producers website. These issues… Read More →

October 8, 2021 Weekly Round Up

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It has been a busy week with agricultural law news coming in from across the country!  Let’s get caught up on some of the biggest stories in the news. *Texas federal court dismisses COVID-19 negligence lawsuit against Tyson. The US District Court for the Eastern District of Texas dismissed a lawsuit employees brought against Tyson Foods claiming Tyson was negligent  in the safety measures put in place at their facilities, which caused the plaintiffs to contract COVID-19.  The court found these claims were preempted by the Poultry Products… Read More →

September 24, 2021 Weekly Round Up

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>Hello and Happy Friday!  We’re back with an Ag Law Weekly Round Up to catch you up on some of the ag law stories over the past month. *EPA Administrator discusses dicamba, WOTUS, and ag advisor.  Recently, EPA Administrator, Michael Regan, spoke at the NASDA national meeting.  He indicated that the EPA is currently working on a new version of the “waters of the United States” definition pursuant to the Clean Water Act, and he expects for the initial proposed draft to be released in November.  He did… Read More →

End of Life Documents

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Unfortunately, I’ve received several questions recently from people needing to know what end of life documents they need to have in place if a loved one ends up ill or incapacitated.  These topics are never fun to think about, but they are extremely important for everyone to have in place.  While there is countless information about the various tools that can be used and options for someone to consider in determining how best to leave their estate, there are a couple of end of life documents that everyone… Read More →

August 13, 2021 Weekly Round Up

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It is time for another recap of some of the key agricultural law stories in the news over the past couple of weeks. * Court orders Maui County to obtain NPDES permit for injection wells on remand.  You all likely remember the US Supreme Court decision in County of Maui v. Hawaii Wildlife Fund, in which the US Supreme Court held that NPDES permits are required for both direct discharges into waters of the United States and for indirect discharges that are the functional equivalent of a direct… Read More →

AFPC Analyzes Proposed Tax Change Impact on Representative Farms

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The Agricultural and Food Policy Center at Texas A&M University recently released a report looking at the likely impacts of proposed changes to the estate and capital gains taxes. [View Report here.]  Specifically, the report analyzed the impact that changes to the lifetime exclusion for estate taxes and the elimination of the stepped up basis for capital gains taxes would have on the AFPC’s 94 representative farms.  The results were clear in showing that for the representative farms, the proposed policy changes would greatly increase tax liability. Estate… Read More →

Talking Taxes: Capital Gains Tax

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Today, we are wrapping up our three-part blog series, Talking Taxes.  Be sure you didn’t miss our prior posts on the estate tax and gift tax.  Today, we will tackle the topic of capital gains taxes. I’ll offer the same two disclaimers as I have on the prior posts in this series.  I am not a tax lawyer, CPA, or accountant.  I’m here to offer just basic information, but highly recommend that you consult with your attorney and tax professional for further advice or clarification.  Second, there has… Read More →

Talking Taxes: Gift Tax

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Today, we will continue our three-part Talking Taxes series with a discussion of the federal gift tax.  If you missed our first post discussing the estate tax, click here. As I did last week, I want to offer two disclaimers.  The first is that I am not a CPA or an accountant.  I’m here to offer just basic information, but highly recommend that you consult with your attorney and tax professional for further advice or clarification.  Second, there has been a lot of talk from Washington, DC, about… Read More →